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When someone you love is diagnoied with a mental illness, it can be devastating. Once you get over the initial shock, there a million things you might have do deal with. Will they need daily care? How will you get through the emotional impact of their condition on all of your lives, and how will you stay strong when they need to lean on you. Dr Bill Kingswell is the Director of Mental Health for QLD Health, Sandiellen Black is from an orgainisation called Kyabra, and Kim Thirkettle knows firsthand what its like to care for a loved one who is mentally ill. They all spoke with Kat Davidson...

Dr Gino Pecoraro is past president of the AMA Queensland and also the Obstetrics & Gynaecology spokesperson for the Federal AMA. Martin Camp is President of Diabetes Australia - Queensland - and he is also an endocrinologist. They came in to talk to Kat Davidson about diabetes, in all it's forms.

Fusion Ensemble has been chosen to participate in the 10th World Symposium on Choral Music in Korea in August this year. They are the only one in Australia to be selected. Each member is paying for his or her own airfare but they are raising funds for additional costs. They need to raise $2500 before the beginning of April...

The very first telephone conversation was between Alexander Graham Bell and his assistant, Thomas Watson. Standing in separate rooms, Bell uttered the famous words: "Come here. I want to see you."

"In the uncountable human phone conversations since then," writes Albom "that concept has never been far from our lips. Come here. I want to see you. Impatient lovers. Long-distance friends. Grandparents talking to grandchildren. The telephone is but a seduction, a bread crumb to an appetite. Come here. I want to see you."

Mitch Albom is a bestselling author, invariably described as a writer of theological fiction, a messenger for religious tales and even as an author of Christian novels. (The latter is somewhat of a misnomer seeing as though Albom is Jewish and the book which catapulted to him to fame was Tuesdays with Morrie, the story of his conversations with his Jewish professor, Morrie Schwartz.)

For believers, Albom writes extremely accessible novels which carry a strong moral and religious meaning of hope. As one of the characters in his latest novel puts it: "Faith, it is said, is better than belief, because belief is when someone else does the thinking."

For those of us who choose not to believe, it is difficult not to read Albom's books as a kind of literary fairy floss: they are just a little too sickly-sweet, tinted with fake colour and liable to quickly disappear without much sense of satisfaction.

Perhaps Albom's most famous work of fiction was his 2003 novel, The Five People You Meet in Heaven. The story follows the life and death of a maintenance man named Eddie who dies whilst trying to save a little girl from an accident on an amusement park. Upon reaching heaven, Eddie encounters five people whose lives intertwined with his own.

Now Heaven has returned, but fortunately for both sides of the religious-secular divide, The First Phone Call from Heavenis unlike any other of Mitch Albom's previous books. It is perhaps best described as 'a thriller with a moral message'.

The story is set in the fictional small American town of Coldwater where eight residents on each Friday begin to receive calls from lost loved ones. The dead are ringing home from heaven and the message they have for anyone prepared to listen is that "the end is not the end". Love is waiting and, as Albom writes, "A few words from heaven rendered all the words on earth inconsequential."

But all is not well. For one woman, the calls are no relief; they are merely torture, a prolongation of suffering. "Somehow, heaven was more comforting when it was only in her mind ... No more calls. No more defying nature, she told herself. There is a time for hello and a time for goodbye. It's why the act of burying things seems natural, but the act of digging them up does not."

And the phone calls from heaven also attract the ungodly. The phenomena become a TV sensation. "Whether heaven truly existed never entered the equation." Even worse, the story of the communications from heaven is a magnet for the atheists and non-believers, an angry and aggressive bunch of stereotypes who are the most unbelievable of all the characters Albom creates.

Much more effective, however, is the periodic inclusion into the narrative of the true story of how Alexander Graham Bell came to be known as the inventor of the telephone. A beautiful set of vignettes explain the inspiration behind invention and explore the fascinating relationship between the eminent scientist and his deaf wife. The blending of fact and fiction adds depth to the plot and inserts a sense of secular inspiration into what remains, at heart, a story of belief and faith in the existence of God.

So, if the phone calls from heaven are real, then what are the dead trying to tell us about the afterlife, and why would they choose a small town in the middle of America? If the calls are not emanating from a celestial resting place, then what or who is behind the mystery and what is the motive?

The First Phone Call from Heaven succeeds as a mystery thriller on different levels: for the believer in God, it is another remarkable book by an author who understands the nature of faith and the altruism of religion, a story bursting with warmth and emotion; for those with a foot firmly in the secular camp, this is a novel with enough twists and turns to enthral, it is a historical tale of the invention of the telephone, and there is no escaping a sense of vindication that the line between belief and zealotry is often one that is far too easy to blur.

What does your Christmas lunch look like at your place? Prawns, cold meat, a a chilled beverage while you dangle your feet in the pool, esky or any available water? Or is it turkey and gravy, Christmas pudding and hot custard?

According to one of Australia's leading experts on the subject, stuttering is going undiagnosed in our classrooms, causing a raft of lifelong social anxiety problems.

Professor Mark Onslow is the Foundation Director of the Australian Stuttering Research Centre and he says that while primary school teachers are perfectly positioned to change the lives of children who stutter, few are equipped to manage the disorder.

This is the story of an American couple: they were born on the same day in 1918, they celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary only a few months ago but sadly they have now died. Les had been sick with Parkinson's disease for some time and Helen had stomach cancer.

It may be a common enough story but when Helen died, Les passed away the following day. He died, they said, of a broken heart.

As most people know from their crime fiction novels or TV police procedurals, a cold case is a crime that was never solved and is usually no longer the subject of a criminal investigation. Named as it is, you would think that in Iceland the country would be full of them!

Like Yrsa Siguroardottir, his fellow Icelandic crime writer, Arnaldur Indridason has a keen sense of history and cold cases are the focus of many of his novels. Thematically at least, Strange Shoresis no different from earlier Indridason novels in that the morose Detective Erlendur finds himself embroiled in the story of a young woman who disappeared in a snowstorm way back in 1942.

In fact, Detective Erlendur, as one critic recently put it, "over the course of an affecting and addictive series of eleven novels has spent almost as much time lamenting modern Iceland's disconnection from its heritage as he has solving murders."

In the previous novel, Hypothermia, Erlendur was involved in a case which stirred up memories of his younger brother's death. With Strange Shores, haunted by the tragedy of his losing his brother in a snowstorm, Erlendur returns to his childhood home in the remote east of the country to search for answers. It isn't long, however, before the story of the disappearance of the young woman 60 years earlier captures his imagination and stokes a determination to solve the case.

"He was in possession of knowledge that he could never forget, and it was natural that he should at least look for explanation. It was not his aim to punish or to fill the prisons with unfortunate souls. His sole intention was to uncover the truth in every case, to track down what was lost and forgotten."

All that is left of Matthildur, the young woman who disappeared, are a series of rumours, lies and folk tales. What Erlendur uncovers is a story of betrayal and revenge. Matthildur was murdered in a crime of passion and her killer "had arranged it so that the person he believed bore all the blame would never experience another day of happiness."

In a remote part of Iceland, divided and being transformed by a rush of industrialisation, Erlendur faces a dilemma: as the past begins to surrender its secrets, should he let sleeping dogs lie or reveal the truth and renew the pain and anguish of those who once loved the victim?

In these days when there appears to be a glut of Nordic crime fiction writers, Arnaldur Indridason stands up there along with the very best. Strange Shoresmight not be the best introduction the Detective Erlendur series - Jar City was the first of Indridason's novels to be translated into English and is undoubtedly the best place to begin if you want to savour one of Scandinavia's most sophisticated writers - but this latest novel is superb. A beautiful sense of place, poignant prose, depth of character, and police procedural at its purest, Arnaldur Indridason has written another beauty.

Disclaimer: Joe Bugner has been one of my greatest heroes ever since I watched him beat Henry Cooper to win the British, Commonwealth and European title in 1971. It was on black-and-white television, my Mum was doing the ironing and, as Bugner writes, he beat a legend.

Sadly - and unbelievably - the British media (and, it must be said, a fair segment of the British public) never forgave Joe for winning that fight against their idol. After 15 gruelling rounds, Bugner deservedly won on points. "The media," Joe writes "went ballistic."

The worst elements of the British press not only rejected the result, but made great play of the fact that Bugner was born in Hungary. In some ways it was the beginning of the end for Joe Bugner and Britain.

"I always try to treat people the way I like to be treated," writes Bugner "and I can never stand it when people put on artificial airs and graces. Although I loved living in England, I was never comfortable with the class distinctions there ... and I often sense that the Establishment looked down their noses at people like me, who dared to dream of becoming successful in their chosen field."

Joe Bugner left England for good in 1977 before moving to the US and, finally, in 1986, to Australia. It has been a remarkably nomadic existence for such a remarkably talented man.

Bugner arrived in Britain after escaping Hungary via Yugoslavia following the Soviet occupation in 1956. Having never known his father - many years later his father showed up but Joe gave him short shrift - and being an immigrant with a poor command of English, Bugner was an easy target for the school bullies.

But by 15, he was already topping six feet, and his gym teacher discovered the young Bugner was handy with his fists. The bullies were by then few and far between. More significantly, perhaps, was the lesson Joe learnt. "I hated bullying or discrimination of any sort," writes Bugner "and I wouldn't stand for it."

It makes sense, later in the book, when Bugner writes about how Mohammed Ali used to take advantage of other people's prejudice, using race to whip up controversy and interest in his fights. Bugner is shocked by Ali's use of the word "nigger" but accepts Ali's explanation that building the tension in fights between a black man and a white man 'put bums on seats'.

There are some brilliant stories in the book about the time Joe spent sparring and training with the great Mohammed Ali. One of the most memorable early encounters has Ali threatening to disfigure Joe and smash him to a pulp. "Damn, you're ugly," says Ali. "Your mother must have cried when she had you." Bugner holds Ali's stare and simply says: "If you think I'm ugly, you should see my sister!"

Bugner remains full of admiration for Ali and they are still close friends. One touching moment has Joe catching up with Ali at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. "Bugner, you're still looking good," says Ali. And, never one for wanting to let the mask slip, follows it up with "And I still beat you."

In fact, Bugner's affection for Ali stands in stark contrast to his feelings for the rest of his family. Whilst Bugner's book has nothing but words of love and praise for his mother and sister Elizabeth, other members of his family are easily - and without any discernible twinge of regret - dismissed. Children from his first, disastrous, marriage are distant and, as regards the rest of his siblings, Joe simply says he is no longer in touch. Fame and glory, it seems, have a high price to pay.

Joe Bugner: My Story is a no holds barred encounter with one of the greatest boxers ever to have graced the ring. The breakdown of his first marriage, the time spent with prostitutes, the end of his love affair with Britain, his brush with celebrity TV, his career in the movies - Joe was brilliant in the 2003 film Gettin' Square - his meetings with a galaxy of stars like Elvis, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Tom Jones, his dedication to wife Marlene and their family, and his later fights in life are detailed with, at times, excruciating honesty.

Above all, however, Joe Bugner: My Storyis a tale of courage. Joe Bugner, the young man who fled Hungary in 1956, who was brought up by a single mum in a strange country, who eventually found true love with Marlene and a home in Australia, was also one of the bravest and most accomplished boxers the world has ever seen.

Just days after his 21st birthday, Joe Bugner was British, Commonwealth and European champion. Within a few short years, he had defeated a whole range of tough, top class boxers; men like Jurgen Blin, Rudi Lubbers, Jimmy Ellis, and Dante Cane were summarily dismissed. And just in case anyone should ever forget, Joe Bugner went the full distance against Ali, twice.

In fact, many people argue that Bugner's greatest performance wasn't in twice going toe-to-toe with Ali, but in the fight against Smokin' Joe Frazier in between. In a chapter entitled "The Hard Hitters", Bugner describes the Earls Court fight against Frazier as quite simply one of the toughest of his career. After all, Joe reminds us, Frazier was a man who could "smash a boxer from one end of the ring to another", his stamina was amazing and he was "a lean, mean, fighting machine who could finish off the best of boxers in three or four rounds."

Bugner fought 12 brutal rounds against Frazier - he spent a week in hospital recovering - only to lose by the narrowest of points margins. In that fight alone, Joe Bugner rightly earned his place alongside Ali, Frazier and George Foreman as one of the greatest heavyweights of the modern era. Once ranked number four in the world, Joe Bugner will always my number one.

Have you got a tattoo or ever thought about getting one? They certainly seem to be more popular - or more visible - than in the past, but what about if you followed the fad and got a tattoo and then changed your mind?

Most tattoos are designed to be permanent, so how do you get rid of them?

Mick Kosenko has more than 25 years experience in erasing old mistakes and is the part owner of one of Brisbane's largest tattoo modification and removal businesses.